In Praise of the CofE

I’m about to do something daring and bold and risky. I’m a professional, I’m properly insured, and all of the risk-assessment forms are in the Vestry. So, whatever happens, don’t make any sudden moves, keep calm, don’t try this at home. I’m about to preach a sermon in praise of the Church of England.

Now, as I said, it’s a very un-Anglican thing to do. We don’t blow our own trumpet in the Church of England. In public we wear a very proper English reserve. The Church of England is for people who are interested in God but don’t want to get carried away, a church for people who excel in self-deprecation, who take being laidback very seriously, who get excited about never being excited. Which is why we get so much bad press- we’re the religious people it’s safe to criticise because we show how angry we are by writing a polite letter to our MP.

But, in fact, the truth is, we are the future. We have some answers, we know a bit about how to live in the world for God. We are not very good at saying it, at admitting it, but the Church of England gets an awful lot right. And what I want to do, and this is, as I say, awfully daring, is to explain why I’m so proud to be part of the Church of England, and why I think we are uniquely positioned to be the Church of God in this generation and in this community. Three reasons to give three cheers for the Church of England.

First, we hold the balance between what we inherit from past generations and what we believe God is calling us to do in the world today particularly well. We believe that God speaks to us through the tradition and through prayer and worship today. We are not people to throw the baby out with the bathwater, hence the traditional style of the wedding between the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, but we also believe that God is doing new things in the world around us and that we need to join in, hence things like Messy Church and the forthcoming discussion of women bishops.

And at St Mary’s, we hold that line well, I think. We worship in a fairly formal way, with an organ, and clergy in vestments, and rhythm and focus. And we expect that God will meet us in our worship, in the sanctity of this place. There is tradition here but it is a tradition we have thought about and which is made new by the fact that it’s what we choose, how worship connects. We are part of it. We enjoy it. And it turns our hearts and our lives to God. New things and old things are brought out of the treasure store to give glory to God.

The Church of England emerges from a time, the Reformation, when everything was up for grabs. It was created as a way of holding together the best and most reassuring aspects of what had gone before and the most insightful and honest aspects of what was newly revealed. This balancing act is rarely comfortable but it is always worth the effort, and it’s part of our DNA as Anglicans.

Secondly, we wash our dirty linen in public, and I am so proud of that. Debates over homosexual clergy, or the remarriage of divorcees, or whether women should be priests and bishops, are held in public so everyone knows that we’re wrestling with them. It’s not just that they happen in public which is special- it’s that they happen at all. It is a daring and courageous way to make decisions, and it relies on the belief that people are open to the Holy Spirit, are prayerful and reflective. It treats the whole church as being adults and Christians, people who pray and have opinions and have opinions which are worth hearing and opinions which can change the way we do things.

We do not make decisions through a small group of professionals behind closed doors. We do not dodge conversations which will be controversial. And there is a price to that, of course there is. But it is the only adult way to do business. And if we get it right, if we are prayerful as a church, if we listen to each other and to God, then it is a wonderful witness to the world of God’s ongoing revelation and of God’s ongoing passion for the world.

And that, I hope, is how it works at St Mary’s. My job here is to not have any ideas at all but to wait for you to come up with them and then to be enthusiastic. It’s harder than it sounds, actually- I thought of, well, Sit Somewhere Else Sunday and Praise and Play and a Midweek Toddler Group. Nil points. And you thought of SMYLE, and the Friendship Club, and Messy Church, and having PCC meetings in the Pub and the website and basically everything which has gone well in the last 5 and a half years. In small, that is how the Church of England works- all of us listen to God, all of us help to shape the direction of the Church. It might be slow and messy, but no other way is as honest or as enjoyable.  

Third, we are immensely committed to the parish, to the community, to the plot of land around us which we are responsible for. The Church of England is said to be the only club which exists primarily for those who aren’t its members. If anyone who lives in the parish of Newton in Mottram comes to me and asks for their child to be baptised then the answer, bluntly, is yes. I can’t make them come to church first. I can’t ask them difficult questions about their faith. I have to say yes. And it’s the same with a wedding, and a funeral. We are the Church who like to, who have to, say yes.

It is difficult and expensive to keep a priest and a church in every community but that is what we are trying to do. We are the Church of England, the Church of Newton, and we exist to be there for people in their joys and their sorrows. We are the parish Church. And when people ask me how big my parish is my answer is not about 70 adults on a Sunday and 20 children, but my parish, my responsibility, our parish, our responsibility, is about 6,500 people, living between Ashton Road and the Rising Moon. We are built into the landscape. We are part of the community. We are the Church of England.

We hold together what has gone before and the world around us. We make our decisions together in public. And we belong in the community, the parish church.

And these things tell us important things about God as well- that he is always building on the past with new revelations and new direction, and he goes with the grain and uses our skills and talents to build his Church, and he is as committed to the world in all of its local detail as we are.

There are quicker and more definite ways to do things. But no other way of being the Church is as daring or as open to the guidance of God. No other way of being the Church means that we are as responsive or as engaged or as vulnerable. And no other way of being the Church is anywhere near as much fun.

And if you’re thinking that this is all fascinating but a long way from the Readings, then let me explain that all of these thoughts came out of the reading from the Acts of the Apostles. It is a wonderful picture of generosity and love, that all was held in common, that people spent as much time together as they could, that because the Church was in step with God people rushed to join them. It is a wonderful portrait of what is possible.    

But what I’ve just described is our equivalent today, who we are, who we are striving to become. We are individuals, and members of St Mary’s, and members of the Church of England, as well as being members of the universal Church of God. And with each of those hats on, in each of those roles, we are called to live for God with confidence in the world every day.

And what I’m saying is that too often, because we take a while to get there in the Church of England, and because disagreement is too often seen as weakness, we are inclined to look at the floor when we admit to being an Anglican. We should not. We are not the ugly ducklings. We are swans. Carry on being proud of being a Christian at St Mary’s, please. But know that there is something equally wonderful about being part of that brave, risky, colourful endeavour which is the Church of England, striving to be devoted to the apostles’ teaching and fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers in this generation, and in every age which is to come.

Amen.